Global Prevalence and Associated Factors of Medication Errors in Hospitalized Pediatric Patients: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Over half of hospitalized children experience at least one medication error worldwide, per pooled observational studies.
Global Prevalence and Associated Factors of Medication Errors in Hospitalized Pediatric Patients: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Medication errors represent a major patient safety concern among hospitalized children due to developmental variability, weight-based dosing, and limited communication capacity.
This study aims to estimate the worldwide prevalence of medication errors in hospitalized pediatric patients and to identify factors associated with their occurrence.
A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted using Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Science, PubMed, and the Cochrane Library from database inception to June 2025.
of hospitalized children had at least one medication error, more than half of all patients
Prescribing error rates were higher in lower-middle-income countries (44%), intensive care units (34%), antibiotic prescriptions (30%), and studies conducted between 2013 and 2025 (32%).
The proportion of patients experiencing medication errors was the highest in upper-middle-income countries (64%), whereas administration error rates were the highest in low-income countries (71%), although these subgroup findings should be interpreted cautiously because of limited numbers of studies and wide CIs.
Medication errors are highly prevalent among hospitalized children worldwide, with substantial variation by region, income level, care setting, and time period.
Errors are closely associated with treatment-related factors, underscoring the need for targeted system-level strategies to improve pediatric medication safety.